


One More Dance

by AdrianaintheSnow



Series: Is There Anything Left of Patton? [11]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, M/M, Patton is a zombie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaintheSnow/pseuds/AdrianaintheSnow
Summary: Logan and Virgil try to keep better track of their zombie roommate now that they know he can open doors. It doesn’t work.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Is There Anything Left of Patton? [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639429
Comments: 68
Kudos: 221





	One More Dance

In the weeks that followed the macaroni revelation, Logan and Virgil kept a closer eye on the zombie in their home. They intended to keep him upstairs all the time, but a problem with this goal quickly arose. That is, Patton did not want to be upstairs all the time. Logan had even tried keeping him on his leash, but it quickly became apparent that, while Patton certainly hadn’t been able to get off the leash before, he very much could now. Logan had gone to sleep with him tied to a chair one night and had woken up with him in their bed, the leash still tied to the chair, but no longer attached to Patton.

For a while, he and Virgil traded off on watching Patton duty, but they quickly became exhausted and it seemed the moment they took their eyes off him, he was down the stairs to hold staring contests with Roman and Remy. They eventually gave up and let him do what he wanted. Apparently, he wanted to have not-quite conversations with Roman which always managed to make Logan’s blood pressure spike, but Roman would just chatter away while Patton stood there not reacting. Somehow, Roman never suspected anything was amiss and Logan eventually forced himself to relax about it and did his best to get on with life.

It was about a month after Roman and Remy first arrived. Patton was upstairs as it was still early morning and he’d been asleep when Logan had woken, and Logan was watching and silently judging Virgil as he started ripping up the couch once again. “Ugh, where is it?” Virgil asked.

Logan sighed heavily. “Did you honestly lose your hoodie again?” he asked.

“I swear! I swear I put it on the couch last night. Seriously, I didn’t touch it afterwards.”

“And yet, the fact that it isn’t there indicates otherwise.”

Virgil glared at him with a couch cushion in his hands. “You know, you’re kind of a dick sometimes.”

“What’s going on?” Remy asked, chewing on a hunk of bread as he exited the kitchen.

“You know you’re a monster, right?” Roman spoke up from where he was currently laying on the floor on the other side of the room. “There’s jam and honey in the kitchen. Why would you choose to eat plain bread? You didn’t even toast it.”

Remy just rolled his eyes and flipped him off.

“I lost my hoodie,” Virgil said. “Have you seen it?”

“Mmm, nope,” Remy replied, before stuffing the rest of the bread into his mouth. “But I lost my sweatshirt too so tell me if you find mine while you’re looking.”

“Please don’t talk with your mouth full,” Logan said, his face screwed up with his displeasure.

“Wait,” Virgil said. “Your sweatshirt’s gone too? When did that happen?”

Remy swallowed his food and shrugged. “I left it on the armchair last night and it was gone in the morning.”

“Weird,” Virgil said. “I left my hoodie on the couch last night and it was gone in the morning.”

“Ask Patton,” Roman suggested. “I heard him up and about last night again. Maybe he grabbed them.”

“No,” Logan replied, “That’s…” Ridiculous is what he’d been about to say, but then he paused and locked eyes with Virgil. Logan thought for a long moment. “Laundry,” he said softly.

“What?” Virgil asked.

“There was half folded laundry in the living room and blood in the kitchen,” he said distantly.

He turned on his heel and walked out of the room. “Hey, Logan, wait, what are you talking about?” Logan ignored Virgil in favor of continuing down the hall past the steps into a room he hadn’t used since before the outbreak. He heard Virgil and the others follow him and gather near the door to the small laundry room. He flipped open the lid to the washing machine and reached inside. “Is this the sweatshirt you were looking for?” he asked Remy.

Remy took it from him. “Yeah,” he confirmed. “Why was it in there?”

“Laundry and cooking,” Logan said in response. “He was… I believe Patton may have… gotten confused and was performing chores as he would before the outbreak.”

“Oh…” Remy replied.

Logan turned back to the washing machine and pulled out a different article of clothing before holding it out to Virgil. Virgil blinked and then snatched it away, his mouth open in surprise and possibly a small amount of outrage. “Apologize to me,” he demanded.

“…There is no way that I could have known.”

“Apologize!”

Logan pursed his lips. “I apologize.”

“Heck yeah, you apologize,” Virgil said. Then he blinked down at his hoodie. “H-how long has this been going on?”

It was a good question and, while Logan wasn’t sure of the exact date, it quickly became clear that the answer was a while.

There were small things he hadn’t noticed until he looked for them: doors in different positions then they were left, clothing moved about in drawers, the faces of the stuffed animals in the closet sometimes in different places.

Yet the most notable thing was when he’d come downstairs almost 3 months after Roman and Remy showed up to see a bucket in the corner of the living room by the armchair. “I think Patton got a bit confused again last night,” Roman explained when he asked. “I saw him pouring water in the corner, so I put a bucket there. That way it didn’t get anything wet.”

Logan cast his mind back through the months to when the water first started to appear. How much had he missed or looked over with Patton, he wondered. This, whatever it was, had been going on since last December at least as that’s when he’d first noticed the “leak.”

He had no idea what any of it meant.

God, it was really hot today, Virgil thought. Usually he didn’t like to have idle hands, even now, in the middle of July, he was always preparing for the winter, but today it was just too hot for working in any capacity and everyone else seemed to agree. Virgil was currently sprawled out across the couch, his feet over Patton’s lap, Logan was reading a book in the armchair and Remy was laying face down on the floor.

All day, Roman had been messing around with a guitar they’d found on a scavenging trip a couple of weeks ago. He seemed to have finally actually gotten it in tune and was singing some Disney song. Virgil was loath to admit it, but it was actually pretty nice just laying there listening even if, every so often, Patton would make some guttural humming sounds and shift around, trying to get to Roman and the noises he was making. Virgil always pushed down with his feet to keep him on the couch.

Roman finished the song and strummed idly for a few moments. Patton made more sounds in response. Suddenly, Roman snapped his fingers making Virgil jump and look over at him. “‘Here Comes the Sun!’” he exclaimed.

“What?” Virgil asked, squinting at him.

“That’s what he’s been humming all day!” Roman explained. “Ever since I sang ‘Yellow Submarine’! Do you like The Beatles, Patton?” Roman asked.

Virgil was 99% sure Roman was reading way too far into the sounds Patton had been making. Patton always made sounds when people around him were being noisy. Yet, before Virgil could even think of a way to respond, Roman was already on his knees in front of Patton and had started singing softly.

Virgil had to pause because, okay, yeah, maybe he could hear a bit of a resemblance to the noises Patton had been making recently. He watched as Patton reached for Roman like he reached for every moving thing that entered his vicinity, but Roman took it as something that it wasn’t and grabbed his wrist, yanking the man to his feet and almost topping Virgil off the couch.

Virgil panicked and tried to reach out to stop the disaster in progress, but he was too slow, and Patton was already being spun around the room in Roman’s arms as he continued to sing. He saw Logan jump to his feet as well, his book landing on the floor with a thump, but both of them paused when there was a laugh.

Patton was… giggling? Even Roman stopped spinning around to look at him in surprise. He continued to giggle for a few moments and then his face dropped, and his laughter turned to sobs.

“Oh god,” Roman said, horrified, stepping away from him with his hands raised. “I’m so sorry.”

Logan was across the room in an instant, pulling Patton into his arms as Patton full on started to wail.

“I’m sorry,” Roman repeated in a whisper.

“Don’t be,” Logan chocked, and Virgil knew why. It was because if there had been any doubts that there was something left of Patton alive in the form that had shambled around the house for the last couple of years, they were all wiped away the instant you looked at his face right now. Chin trembling and lips pulled taunt, he cried so hard he was shaking with it. Tears poured down his face and splattered on his hands still half raised from where Roman had been gripping them, and the way his breaths rasped was different than the sound of every rattling breath Virgil had ever heard from him. That was a person, 100%. And he knew what was happening at least in this moment. There was no doubt in Virgil’s mind.

“Hi Patton,” Logan said softly, his own tears quickly pooling in his eyes. He reached up to wipe away a few of the tears on Patton’s face. “It’s okay dear. Shh.” Patton reached for him, but not in the mindless way he always did. Instead of scraping against his cheeks again and again, he grabbed Logan’s face between his palms and pulled his head down, so their foreheads brushed together. “Oh, hello my love. Hello. Look at you!” He pressed a kiss to the corner of Patton’s eye and another to his cheek. Logan continued to murmur soft words and started to rock the man back and forth as both of them cried.

“Come on,” Virgil said to the other two who were starting at the scene in confusion. “We should probably give them some privacy.”

Remy pushed himself up to his feet and grabbed Roman’s wrist pulling him from the room into the kitchen.

They all stared at each other for a few minutes. “So…” Remy said. “Like, is he actually a zombie or what?”

Roman gave him a confused look.

“I honestly don’t even know anymore,” Virgil said.


End file.
